Thursday, June 21, 2012

Slime mold

Slime molds are interesting creatures. They look enough like a fungus that they have typically been studied by mycologists, who study mushrooms. But, unlike mushrooms, slime molds move. They're most closely related to amoebas.

We came across this one recently at K College's arboretum. I'm pretty sure it's Fuligo septica (charmingly known as Dog Vomit Slime Mold) which was featured on XKCD.

Chuck Stull

I teach economics at Kalamazoo College. My wife is also an economist. We were on sabbatical in Europe for the 2014-15 academic year. (Salamanca, Spain, followed by Oxford, UK.) We were in Uruguay for the 2006-7 academic year.